Interim
by czieskara
Summary: With Tiger and Barnaby's retirement, Apollon is in need of a new hero. Enter Rowen Chrysler, a rookie detective working for the Justice Bureau and Trish Nicholson, a prominent fashion model. Set in the gap between Kotetsu's retirement and return.
1. Prologue

**Interim**

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><p><strong>Story: <strong>With the retirement of Wild Tiger and Barnaby Brooks jr, and the controversy surrounding Maverick and Ourobouros, Apollon Media is in need of a new hero. Enter Rowen Chrysler, a rookie detective working for the Justice Bureau and Trish Nicholson, a prominent fashion model. Will these two fresh faces become the Queen of Heroes, or destroy Sternbild in the process? Set in the gap between Kotetsu's retirement and return.

This'll be my first foray into Tiger and Bunny fanfiction, one with OC's at that. Hope it works out; constructive criticism appreciated!

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><p><strong>Prologue : One swallow does not a summer make<strong>

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><p>Barnaby Brooks Jr sighed in his chair. Retiring from the hero business had been a personal decision, something he had undertaken for himself. Right now he should be halfway across the country enjoying life, or working on one of his parents' past projects, or hunting down Ouroboros, or enjoying tea with Kotetsu at his home in Oriental town. Instead, he was looking over applications for becoming Apollon Media's next Hero. It had been Lloyds' idea for him and Kotetsu to filter through the applicants, and they had each taken their own approaches to the task: Kotetsu was currently at the Hero Academy with Origami Cyclone, interviewing the fresh graduates, while Barnaby had taken the administrative road and was reading through each candidate's biodata, resume, educational attainments and other government-mandatory paperwork. He had just finished trashing half of the applications from said Hero Academy fresh grads when Agnes paid him a visit.<p>

"Barnaby. Lloyds sent me here with more applications."

Barnaby gave her an irritated look, but did a double take. Agnes rarely dropped by the Apollon office unless she was conducting an interview, or had something important in mind. The fact that she had pretty much been promoted to the head of Hero TV made the visit even more significant. He stopped looking over an application of a Next with plant powers for a moment and gave her his full attention. "Please tell me these are promising ones. I'm tired of going through applications that sound like drawn-out character sheets for fanfiction."

Ignoring for a moment how Barnaby could possibly know what a crappy character sheet looked like, Agnes casually wheeled over Kotetsu's chair and set a large brown envelope on the table. "Don't worry. I took the liberty of looking through these myself, and I know the feeling."

A brief moment of relief shot through Barnaby. If there was anyone he knew that could spot potential in random people with strange powers, it was Agnes. "Great. Are you still sure we shouldn't just promote one of the minor league heroes?"

"They're in the minor league for a reason, Barnaby. That being said, I want you to realize that this is an opportunity for Apollon Media to redeem itself. Our reputation hasn't exactly been pristine since the beginning, but in case you haven't noticed, the recent incidents have taken a large dent in both our trust and our shares. That being said, our ratings are at an all time high." Agnes smirked and patted the fat brown envelope. "I want you to take a good look at these. We're not just looking for fit, bright, healthy individuals, but those with good images."

Barnaby paused. "Are you telling me that we're looking for a _public_ hero?" Barnaby himself had been the first celebrity hero with public identity, for the simple reason that he believeed that he didn't have anything to hide – rather, he wanted everyone to know that he was a hero, and that he was out for justice. It had been his way of challenging Ouroboros front and center, but that hadn't exactly worked as intended. He'd been besieged by fans the evening after his unofficial debut during that last season when he'd rescued Wild Tiger, and it had been hell since the Jake Martinez incident. It was a good thing he lived in an apartment with high security.

"Exactly my point. The main reason why you were so popular in the first place was because you didn't have a superhero persona or a secret identity – you gave off an aura that you were approachable and human, compared to the other heroes. It helped that you looked the part of the pretty poster boy in the first place. That's one thing Maverick got right, at least."

"Please don't remind me." Barnaby reached for the envelope and shook the applications out onto the table. Several had been eared and marked with post-its, with key details on their resumes highlighted with an annoyingly pink shade of marker. "And these would be..?"

"I figured that it would be better if we chose a Hero of a certain background for this. Preferably someone with as little connections to crime syndicates as possible. And of course, There are a surprising number of applications from celebrities in there, there's one from a popular talk show host, and another a famous idol."

"We already have a Next Hero idol singer." Barnaby began scanning one application. "The talk show host, what power does he have?"

"Aside from making a room full of people laugh? I think he'd listed it as a power of hypnotic suggestion."

"No hypnotists. The last person that could do things to people's minds didn't go so well with the general public."

"Granted." Agnes sighed, and took a few applications from the pile on Barnaby's desk. "No, no and no. Some people need to be told that they have no talent."

"Kotetsu's too nice to do that." Barnaby leafed through the application of a scientist who could change body size dramatically and decided that he wasn't heroic enough.

Agnes threw the applications into the trash, where Barnaby made a mental note to put the rest. "Where is Tiger anyway? I haven't heard from him since you two announced your retirement."

"Right now? He's at the Academy, reviewing applicants."

"Figures." Agnes went through half an inch of applications before leaning back into Kotetsu's office chair. "You know, Barnaby, there's some talk going around regarding your retirement. It strikes most people odd that the King of Heroes would call it quits the year after he won the award."

Barnaby trashed an application of a stretching NEXT and looked a her sternly. "Agnes, I am usually patient with you, but the matter of my retirement-"

"I know, Barnaby, it's personal. Even I find it uncomfortable that someone's been messing around with my head, but I'm not talking about that. It's about Wild Tiger."

"Kotetsu?" Barnaby looked confused.

"Yes. There's talk online that there may be something... more to your relationship. Just wanted you to know what your fan base is thinking." Agnes shot him a sly smile and got started on the profile of a bodybuilder who could turn into animals. "Hmm. Too iffy, we already have enough animal heroes.."

"I am not gay, Agnes."

"I never said you were."

Barnaby sighed irritably and resumed working. A girl with dragonfly wings, a boy with spider powers, another boy with an immense healing factor... The last one had potential, but he was shorter than Origami Cyclone and looked like he'd piss his pants at the sight of Kriem, let alone Jake Martinez.

"Oh, Barnaby, take a look at this one. You'll find her interesting."

Agnes smiled and handed him a set of documents highlighted heavily and half covered in post its. The accompanying photo (rather, portfolio) seemed to scream star material, while her Next power – extreme speed – was simple, but versatile. Barnaby nodded and set it in a tray on his desk, which had been empty all day.

"You sure about her, Agnes?"

"Oh, I'm sure. You've met her before at functions, haven't you? She's a real charmer on screen, just like you."

_I want her to be as not-like me_ _as possible_, Barnaby mused. He dismissed Agnes with a hand wave and went back to work, wondering how things were doing on Kotetsu's end.

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><p>Kaburagi T. Kotetsu slumped into the driver's seat of his car. The last time he'd been at the Hero Academy the... lackluster students there had really tested his politeness. He had no idea how they'd multiplied. Sure there were at least a dozen with Hero quality next powers, but their personalities... That kid with the healing factor looked like he was going to collapse any second. Ivan Karelin meekly climbed into the passenger's seat next to him. It definitely wasn't in his place to chastise the timid Next, seeing that he himself had been one when he'd gone Hero, but the situation definitely called for outstanding candidates and even by his reckoning there weren't any to be had in this graduating batch of the Academy.<p>

"Man, that was tiring." Kotetsu took his hat off with a sweep and fanned himself briefly, fingering the steering wheel with his other hand. His eyes darted instinctively to his wrist sans hero communicator and sighed. He'd volunteered to at least go interview the Hero applicants, but he hadn't expected this crop to be so unimpressive. He was sure that even if he did manage to come up with a shortlist, his partner would tear it to shreds and demand that Kotetsu return and start over. Maybe Bunny should have gone to the Academy instead.

Ivan turned to look at him. In the year since that incident with Edward, he'd come to trust Kotetsu like a sort-of-older-brother-uncle-friend. Something. Whatever. He trusted him. "I'm sure that most of them were just nervous, Kotetsu-dono. Being around Heroes is kind of intimidating for them.." .._for himself,_ he meant.

"Nee, Origami, you sure you don't know anyone from your days at school that'd be a good Hero?" Kotetsu revved up the engine and drove out of the parking lot and onto the road. "Someone strong, and proud, with confidence and coolness! Oh, and respectful to their elders." He didn't want another Barnaby on his hands. Not that he didn't like the bouncing blonde bunny his partner had slowly grown into, but the beginning had been hell, at best.

Ivan shrugged and gazed wistfully out the window. "I could name a couple, but they didn't apply, did they? I... I have a few people in mind, but I don't have their contact information. Maybe we could ask the school principal?"

"Good idea, Origami! I guess I'll go ask when Bunny kicks my ass back to the Academy to look for more people. Maybe he won't mind undergrads." Kotetsu grinned mischievously, bringing a smile to Ivan's face. "Seriously though, they should consider teaching those kids a lesson in confidence! This generation has a lot to learn from the older heroes." He tsk tsked at a stoplight, pausing to finger his bare wrist.

This did not go unnoticed by the young blonde next to him. "Kotetsu-san.. Are you really all right like this? Retiring? You still have your powers.."

"That's true. It's also true that I barely have any control over them any more. Next thing you know my Hundred Power'll end while I'm mid-air rescuing somebody from a flaming building, and it'll be Barbecued Tiger from then on." Not to mention Barnaby would kill him. Or what was left of him. "Besides, I'm long overdue in Oriental Town. It's about time that I was around Kaede like a proper dad."

"Well, I'll definitely miss you." Ivan looked down at his feet sadly. Kotetsu had definitely been one of the motivating forces for him, and for Origami Cyclone, too. He'd nearly topped Blue Rose in hero points this year too. But still, Kotetsu.. "...are you sure you need to go back home?"

"Yep, I'm sure. Besided, I've turned in the paperwork. Now to find my darned replacement." Kotetsu wheeled the car down a ramp leading to the Bronze stage. "You sure you want to hang out with me on a Friday night? I'm sure a kid like you has something to do."

_Besides watching anime and Hero TV reruns?_ Ivan shook his head. "Nope. I'm curious to see what Kotetsu-san's house looks like."

"Oh it's a nice little place. It gets a bit lonely, but it's nice. Pardon the smell though, I rarely clean up. Being a Hero can be pretty busy!" Kotetsu shrugged.

"Smell?" Ivan asked cautiously. Kotetsu couldn't have been that much of a slob.

"Oh don't worry, it's just booze. I keep forgetting. Staying for dinner? I'll make you some of my special steaming hot Kaburagi fried rice!" Kotetsu grinned widely at the prospect of food, and his stomach grumbled.

Ivan laughed as they drove up to the front of Kotetsu's place. With a little help from the younger hero, Kotetsu parallel parked in front of the stairs to his home, and pulled the keys out of the ignition. _Boy, am I hungry,_ he thought, unlocking the front door. He could smell the fried rice already, the smell of warm rice and egg and chopped bits of sausage, peas, carrots, some pepper, maybe a bit of cheese...

_...waitaminute, I AM smelling fried rice._ "Origami, stay put..."

"Something wrong, Kotetsu-san?" Ivan had a worried look on his face, which was quickly replaced by what Kotetsu had come to call his "game" face.

"Either I'm really hungry, or my wife's come back from the dead to make me dinner.."

Kotetsu barged into his loft to find several things different from when he'd left it that morning. Firstly, the bottles of sake and red wine he'd collected over the past month trying to drink his Hundred Power to full strength (he swore it raised it by at least a few seconds) were gone, and so was the smell they were giving off. Next, his coffee table was clean and the notes he'd equally collected about his Hundred Power were neatly collected and placed carefully under a Mr. Legend paperweight. Lastly, he hadn't expected to find a scruffy young woman in a loose shirt and tie and cargo shorts at his kitchen making his favorite food.

"Oh. Hi papa, you're back earlier than I'd expected!" The girl looked up at the two Heroes and grinned, while expertly handling the wok with the steaming hot rice. She looked about Origami's age, with short, messy black hair with brown and orange highlights. She wore blue-framed glasses that were rimless at the top, and a necklace with Wild Tiger's emblem on it. She had the bluest eyes Ivan could remember seeing, and a sincere smile to boot. It didn't help that she recognized him as well. "...Van? Is that you?"

"_Rowen? _What are you doing here?" Aside from that, Ivan was speechless.

Kotetsu's reaction was entirely different. He kicked off his shoes and strode over to her. "Darn it Rowen, tell me earlier when you come back from far away! I would've scheduled something."

"Scheduled what? Another Hero TV rerun night?" The girl known as Rowen laughed and took the rice off the burner, spooning it into a large bowl. "Good thing I made enough for three, I'd thought you'd want extra. Maybe that wasn't enough?" She laughed and gave Kotetsu a warm embrace and nuzzled his neck. "You okay, papa? You've been through hell.."

"I sure have been, where were you? I was afraid he'd gotten to you too." Kotetsu returned the nuzzle, serving to confuse Ivan further.

"My boss must be psychic. He'd sent me to New Angeles on a tip that there was an.." Rowen turned to Ivan for a second. "...Ouroboros operation going there. Turns out it was in Sternbild instead, but at least I got some info. Anyway-"

Rowen charged headlong into Ivan, knocking the wind out of him in a bear hug. "YOU! I've missed you. Why didn't you ever mail me after graduation?"

This time it was Kotetsu that was confused. "You know him?"

Ivan shrugged. "We were classmates in the Academy.."

"And you never mentioned it once that you were friends with Origami Cyclone?" Kotetsu turned to his (daughter? Girlfriend? Neighbor? Ivan had no idea) and gave her a noogie.

"He wasn't Origami then! Fine, I'll introduce you, Van, this is my smelly old man Kaburagi Kotetsu who turns out to be Wild Tiger and papa this is Van, my sideckick turned ninja Hero." Rowen grinned. "'sides like I said, you never mailed me!"

"I did, but you never replied!"

Kotetsu was surprised at how casual Ivan was acting around her. For a moment, the shy Ivan Karelin seemed to have vanished in the presence of his (daughter? neighbor? They didn't look a shred alike!). "Oi, Rowen, maybe you forgot to give him your mail when you went over to the Bureau?" he pointed out. He'd claimed the bowl of fried rice and was eating out of it with the wooden stirring spoon.

The girl paused in thought for a second. "...damn. Gomen, Van!" Rowen bowed deeply. "Stupid Justice Bureau and stupid boss, I forgot all about it, Van, I'm so sorry, and papa stop eating the rice it's for all of us!" She grabbed at the bowl unsuccessful but managed to take away the wooden spoon.

"Nope, from what I gathered you were making it for just the two of us." Kotetsu joked. "Kidding, you two kids have as much as you want, but if we run out it'll be your fault for not making enough!"

"Fine, but Ivan has to make more." Rowen gave Ivan another hug. "I really missed you. That thing with Edward on the news made me worry, but I was told to stay clean out of it, I was on another case.."

Ivan was still in shock. "Run that by me again, did you say you were investigating an Ouroboros operation?"

Rowen put the spoon down and rummaged for a few plates. "Yep, but I'd prefer not to elaborate..."

"Come on, Rowen, we're all involved in Ouroboros now. Maverick's seen to that." Kotetsu flopped down on the couch, setting the huge bowl of fried rice on the coffee table and turning the television on. Right on cue, Blue Rose's Pepsi Nex commercial was playing.

"I wasn't talking about Ivan, I mean you! You're officially a civilian now." Rowen joked, pulling a bottle of rose champagne from a wine cupboard, and a pair of wine glasses. She hesistated for a bit. "Ivan, sit, sit! Do you drink? I'll forgive you for intruding on me and Kotetsu-papa's Hero TV evening for now."

"You were the one intruding, someone working at the Justice Bureau should know what breaking and entering is! I still haven't given you the key to this place!" Kotetsu laughed and gestured to Ivan to sit next to him on the couch. Having Rowen around was handy in more ways than one, and he'd missed having a woman in the house, although by his reckoning Rowen hadn't been a proper woman until a year ago.

Ivan sat down, still feeling awkwardly out of place in a conversation between one of his old friends and one of his newer ones and the relationship he had no idea that they'd had. _Small world, this one. _

"I don't need a key to get into this relic of a house." Rowen smiled and placed the plates, several spoons, some paper towels and the wine glasses onto the table. Ivan noticed that she'd taken three glasses. He felt a bit more welcome then.

Rowen slid into the seat next to Kotetsu and handed him the champagne bottle. "Anyway, yeah, I was investigating Ouroboros. That incident with Jake got my old man into the hospital and struck a couple of chords in me. Admittedly, your _Bunny_-" and at this, she poked Kotetsu with a bottle opener she'd seemingly produced out of nowhere. Kotetsu snatched it up and stuck it into the cork. "-might have had a lifetime ahead of me in terms of research, but I'm positive I've done more fieldwork. And let me tell you, that business with Hero TV was the tip of the iceberg."

Rowen stuck a large metal serving spoon (again, Ivan had no idea where it had come from, but he was sure he knew how Rowen was getting them) into the rice and served herself a small mound. "It's hard to tell the rumors from plain fact though. Some are saying that Ouroboros is specializing into Next genetic work, some are saying that their main front is a prostitution business, that they're breeding and training assassins, that they're cloning Heroes... It's probably safe to say it's all speculation though. That bit Maverick did with the androids was an eye opener for me though. I'm positive Ouroboros has no hand in machinery, their core principle is against the stuff."

"No surprises there. I've faced off with that scientist and his androids before with Bunny. I don't think that'll be the end of those androids though." Kotetsu said thoughtfully with a spoon in his mouth. The television screen switched from some taped coverage of a burglary that Fire Emblem had stopped to some running commentary about his and Barnaby's retirement. "Darn TV won't stop going on about us either."

"That's because the two of you are so interesting. Word on the net is that you're a couple."

Both Kotetsu and Ivan nearly spat out their rice. Ivan had read up on the speculation before, but to have it mentioned directly to the man himself..

"Me? _And Bunny?_ You're kidding me!" Kotetsu took a gulp of champagne. "Kid's barely out of the crisis of his life and they're already making new stuff up about him!"

"That's because he's retiring same time as you. Understandably he'll have taken some time off, but to put his Hero career on a complete halt when he isn't even out of his twenties yet suggests something. And he's King of Heroes too! Even a detective like me reads between the lines, papa, and this detective's wondering if you're just that little bit too lonely, and him as well..." Rowen had a very honestly inquisitive look on her face, somewhat made childish with the spoon in her mouth.

"Rowen, I've been through a lot this past fortnight, I do not want to be bringing up my love life."

"Um, Kotetsu-san, I've been wondering about that as well.."

"_Mou!_ Enough with this! Barnaby's not even my type."

"Aha! So you'd considered it?" Rowen grinned gleefully, accusingly pointing her spoon at him. "I'd figured out you went that way sooner or later-"

Kotetsu cut off this unfortunate branching of the conversation by shoving a spoonful of rice in her mouth. "Shush. I can't hear the TV over your chattering." He poured himself more champagne after pulling his spoon back and changed the channel. This time it was the local news report, but unfortunately it was the celebrity segment, and Barnaby's attractive face appearing on the screen did nothing to deter the subject at hand. _Barnaby Brooks Jr's retirement? The King Of Heroes steps out of the ring, _it blared in huge letters. Kotetsu groaned and leaned back into the chair, his hat falling over and onto his face.

Ivan had the sense of mind to stay quiet, and he vowed to exchange mails with Rowen and resume their friendship. If she'd been close to Kotetsu for this long, who knows what heroes she's been able to rub elbows with? Rock Bison definitely, but... He wondered what she thought of Lunatic as he sipped the champagne. It was surprisingly light, but he had to be careful not to drink too much.

"Anyway, how was your day, papa? I'm assuming you were doing something productive." Rowen washed down the unexpected mouthful with a sip of champagne and changed the channel to cartoons. It was one of Ivan's pet series of the month, a program about a young Next kid who could turn into several different beastly and alienic forms, but had a time limit on each.

"Oh the usual, running around asking Next kids if they want to be a hero." Kotetsu threw his hat across the room, landing it cleanly on the dining table proper. He swirled the champagne in his glass. "I'm serious. Apollon isn't too happy that both their Heroes have resigned and they're making us look for replacements. We were just at the Academy earlier interviewing..." Kotetsu paused to look at Rowen, his hand midspin. A few drops of champagne spattered on his cheek. _...Rowen. Rowen Chrysler, Hero Academy graduate, detective under the Justice Bureau, Apollon Hero. Why didn't I think of it sooner?_ He looked at Ivan, who was now quite pink from the wine, but he seemed to have picked up on Kotetsu's train of thought, and nodded. "..candidates. For Apollon."

Rowen was oblivious, her eyes fixed to the television. The Next boy had transformed into a ball-shaped creature and was bowling over random enemies in his path. "Hero candidates huh? The Academy's full of eager kids, are there any promising ones?" She munched on another spoonful of rice.

"Well there is one, but I don't think she's interested.." Ivan began. He sensed that this would be interesting. Having Rowen in the Hero spot would pretty much ensure that crime did indeed get its proverbial ass kicked, and by someone raised (?) by Kaburagi Kotetsu of all people. He confirmed his suspicion with Kotetsu who was nodding frantically. Rowen hadn't been one of the students at the Academy that had been eager to become a Hero for reason Ivan wasn't particularly sure of, and he knew that getting her into the position wouldn't be easy. Perhaps a bit of coercion on the part of Kotetsu would help?

He glanced at the older hero for an idea. Kotetsu himself thought that this was a splendid idea. Rowen was a good girl after all, maybe not so good as Kaede, but then again she had a power that was controllable. And she was pretty too! Personal experience however had cautioned him that maybe extracting Rowen from the Justice Bureau wouldn't be such a good idea. _Maybe I should approach her superior on this. I'm sure the Justice Bureau'll be interested in having an eye out in the Hero business._

"Rowen-chan, who did you say your boss was again? The one that flew you to New Angeles." Kotetsu asked casually.

"Hm? Yuri Petrov."

The air in the room deadened, with the exception of the television and the sound of Rowen's spoon clinking against the bowl. _Why did it have to be Yuri Petrov?_ Rowen seemed to be used to the treatment and responded. "I know, right? Head of the Bureau and everything. Maybe he liked my grades. I'm sorry I couldn't get you any leeway with those damage fines though papa, Judge Petrov's a pretty hard man to sway..."

_You sure said it, Rowen._ Kotetsu would have eaten his hat if it weren't across the room and instead settled for his spoon. Ivan himself seemed dejected and sunk into the couch. _And it was such a good idea too.._

Kotetsu's new phone couldn't have chosen a more opportune moment to ring, and he scrambled to get it. "Hello? ...Agnes? Great timing, I need a favor... what? How did the interviews go? Horribly! Listen-" and Kotetsu smiled sheepishly at the two young adults and mouthed "Excuse me for a sec" and ran up the stairs to continue the call.

"It couldn't have been that bad, could it?" Rowen munched on fried rice and changed the channel back to the news. Barnaby was gone, but this time it was speculation that Wild Tiger and Kaburagi Kotetsu were one and the same (and they were, but the public certainly didn't know for sure, and darned if the old man's beard didn't give him away!), and Rowen inched towards Ivan to get the better spot to watch it.

"You don't know the half of it." Ivan groaned and concentrated on his rice.

* * *

><p>The two souls sitting in Lloyds' office across the Tiger and Barnaby duo couldn't have been more different.<p>

Rowen Chrysler was there, either through some coercion via Agnes or sinister brilliance on the part of Yuri Petrov. She was wearing her detective clothes: a blue blazer lined with white on top of a button up white shirt, with a pair of sleek blue jeans and black boots. (Barnaby especially doubted that she looked the part of a detective, but he supposed that if anyone had a problem with the attire it would have been Judge Petrov, and he had been silent on the matter. ) The Tiger necklace was still there, accompanied by the addition of a simple white wristwatch. Rowen herself looked anxious, the glasses she'd worn the other day traded for a pair of contacts. She sat cross-legged, bouncing a foot out of impatience.

Her counterpart looked starkly beautiful. Trish Nicholson was a beautiful model, every inch of her 5-foot-six-inches, augmented by a killer pair of yellow pumps. Trish's long waist-length almost white blond hair had orange and gold highlights (one thing that the two had in common, to completely different effects), framing her lithe, thin body. Rowen's bony build made her look muscular in comparison. Trish wore a very loosely hung sleeveless yellow hoodie with squarish metal studs forming a line across her barely-there breasts. The hoodie was zipped down to reveal a lacy black camisole, and a pair of surprisingly athletic looking lags followed, wrapped in leather pants. Bangles hung from her thin wrists, some with spikes, some with studs. If Trish was as fast as her resume said she was, those bangles could be lethal.

The two Hero candidates were ignoring each other, to Kotetsu's unease and Barnaby's expectation. Kotetsu grabbed Barnaby and dragged him out of the office, commanding the attention of a perplexed Rowen and a nonchalant Trish, who merely looked up from her iPhone for half a second.

"Barnaby, that fashion model of yours was a bad idea! I mean my Rowen isn't even LOOKING at her!" Kotetsu frowned. He hoped the two girls wouldn't hear them.

"YOUR Rowen? Last time I checked, she wasn't your property." Barnaby sighed, his brows furrowed.

"Checked- waitaminute, you know her?"

"From the Academy, yes, she was quite well known-"

Kotetsu grit his teeth and began to pace outside the office door. "Well if you know her, you'd know well that she's better material than your model."

"For your information Kotetsu, the model was not only the only application around the two or three thousand or so Next who made due process with Apollon Media, but was also Agnes' idea. Agnes pointed out to me her application first hand, and I believe that she is a professional familiar to the industry and will be easy to work with." Barnaby tried his best to stare down his partner, but Kotetsu was walking too quickly to make proper eye contact with. He settled at concentrating on his partner's hat.

"Well it was Agnes' idea to convince Judge Petrov to let Rowen, a frigging detective, try out for the position! And look where she is now! I don't think you would have any problems about her background..."

"I don't, and I don't doubt Agnes, but unless Lloyds is planning to churn out an all-girl Next duo and pair THEM up with Blue Rose for a collaborative single, only one of those two is gonna walk out as Apollon's Next Hero."

"Barnaby, the girl is a _fashion model_ for Christ's sake. All she's gonna do out in the field is pose for the cameras and swoop in at the last minute to make the arrest.. Just like a certain Bunny I know used to do before I knocked some sense into him."

Barnaby instinctively opened his mouth to chastise his partner but decided not to. He'd grown into his nickname, and the fact that it irked him so much to the point that it broke mental barriers was something of note. _Maybe I am getting too soft for Kotetsu. But I digress._ "Trish is an able fighter and has trained in martial arts. She has learned under the masters of several fields, Jiu-jitsu, Karate and Jeet-Kun-Do."

"Bunny, the last Jeet-Kun-Do master died ages ago when I was first starting in the Hero business. Don't tell me she knows a few moves she copied off one of his movies." Kotetsu frowned. _Maybe that model was just too fast for Barnaby to check properly. Or maybe he likes her. Yeah, that's it! Barnaby might just want a cute female to look up to him._ Kotetsu reviewed Trish's profile and was more than startled to realize that she was at least three years older than Barnaby. Maybe she HAD trained with a Jeet-Kun-Do master.

"I've done extensive research on her. She beat at least three seasoned martial arts pros in an exhibition once, without using her Next powers. Of course it was a fashion charity exhibition so it might have been staged, but the pros I interviewed swear that they were beaten fair and square."

"All right, she can fight then. What about her Next powers, has she been hiding them all up 'til now?"

"Well she claims that since her powers don't really lend anything to her profession- I mean come on, Kotetsu, she's a model like you said, what use would she have for running long distances in seconds when she just has to pose for the camera? She says she acquired them at 16 years of age and she's demonstrated them to me herself. Theoretically if she runs fast enough she'll be able to do it on walls and buildings. Barely broke a sweat running up to the top floor from the ground. I wouldn't have thought a girl could run that fast in heels." Barnaby looked proud.

Kotetsu snorted and paused. "Run that fast in heels. Ptch. Rowen can beat one of those androids to a pulp just by standing there."

Barnaby looked up at him. This was fascinating. Rowen had never publicly used her Next powers at the Academy (well, she didn't show them off at least) and even when she did only in short bursts. Even he had dismissed her powers as base telekinesis. Now he realized that she might never had proper control over them in the first place. "Explain."

"Rowen's a magnetic Next. Trained her myself." Kotetsu took a deep breath. "Got more injuries taking care of her than I did in the first five years of my Hero career. Do you know she once crushed my car in her sleep when _she_ was 16? She did her best to un-crush it the next day, somehow, and we managed to get it up and running again after about three months of auto shop lessons, but it always sounded funny, and we never fixed the muffler. Hence my newer car. Anyway-" Kotetsu waved his arms at him. "-it took a while before she could properly manage her power, but she can send my radio across the room in one piece while it's playing. Heck, she could probably lift Rock Bison fifteen storeys into the air no sweat!"

"Can she fight?" Barnaby interjected.

"She received combat training at the Bureau. But it's mostly self-defense."

"There you go. She can't fight."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that. A kid learns a lot from dodging garbage cans when they're magnetically attracted to you."

The clicking of heeled footsteps from up the hall distracted them. Agnes arrived with Lloyds in tow. "Keep quiet you two, we can hear you from all the way across the building." she said, looking cross.

"Lloyds, I'm sure you have the capacity in you to make the good decision on your part of this ordeal-" Barnaby began.

"-and pick the goddamn professional. I have no idea what Bunny was thinking when he picked the model, but don't pick her-" Kotetsu continued.

The door to Lloyds office opened. Trish stood by the door, a pair of earphones looped around her neck and winding to the iPhone in her hand. "If you people are quite done discussing who's qualified to be what, I'd appreciate it if we could get on with the meeting? I have a schedule to keep, and we're-" she checked her phone. "-late."

"See what I mean?" Kotetsu frowned. Barnaby instead snickered; through the door he could see Rowen idly making origami from the monogrammed notepaper on Lloyds' desk. Upon realizing she was being watched, Rowen hastily stuffed the paper into her pocket and grinned sheepishly, heading for the door. _Which one of the two is the professional here again?_

"Quiet. Brooks. Kaburagi. I have already reached an informed decision regarding who will succeed the two of you as Apollon Media's next sponsors.."

_Let it be Rowen. _Kotetsu crossed his fingers.

_Trish. TRISH. _Barnaby's eyes were fierce.

"...are both of you. Rowen and Trish."

Trish's eyebrows raised. Rowen simply stared. "Huh?"

"Agnes and I have discussed this. The objective of the hero pair is the same as the objective we had in mind when we signed the both of you up, and as your Hero TV records show, working as a team seems to improve both of your performance, so there is reasonable evidence to suggest that these two ladies would work similarly." Lloyds explained, striding into his office.

"Mr. Lloyds, I was here under the pretense that this would be a one-man affair." Trish's tone was condescending, and eerily similar to Barnaby's when pissed off. "This.. girl here? I don't think I can work with her."

"I'm not so sure about you myself." Rowen, at least in Kotetsu's eyes, was about as far a cry as one could get from an it girl like Trish. "I don't think Judge Petrov will let me off easy if I back down here though."

"Judge?" Trish shot her a curious look. "You're with Petrov? Interesting. Then you can handle the arrests for me. I don't want to dirty myself in front of the cameras."

"I told you." Kotetsu groaned.

"And if Lunatic or some other shady Next comes after us?" Rowen shot back.

"Then I'll run as far away as my pretty little feet allow me. You however, I am not so sure."

"I take it back. Judge Petrov will be easier to work with compared to you."

"Down girls, _down._" Agnes stepped between the two. "This is no longer an issue of if. The two of you are to start immediately next season, which begins next month. Kotetsu and Barnaby will be handling the two of you in the meantime for Hero training and protocol instruction. Trish, you will be glad to know that SoftBank and have agreed to sponsor you, and that Rowen will be sponsored by Bandai and S.H. Figuarts, which I must say makes an interesting combination. Ms. Chrysler, are you a hobbyist?"

Rowen, who collected as much hero stuff as her detective salary could let her get her hands on, merely nodded. "Ms. Joubert, I'll have to agree with Kotetsu. I'm really not so sure about this match."

"Don't worry. We'll play it up for the cameras. For now, your role is to be the rookie hero, a little bit like Barnaby was, but doing your best to make arrests will get you far. Just avoid breaking things as much as possible." Agnes gave her and Kotetsu a knowing look. "You are both aware that you will be public Heroes just like our dear Barnaby Brooks jr is, I assume?"

Rowen gave Kotetsu a nervous glance, and when Kotetsu's facial expression wasn't reassuring enough, she gave Barnaby a split second, and nodded. Trish merely smiled. "Lights, cameras, action. I know the drill, Agnes."

"Good. Rowen, I do hope you'll keep up."

"...I'll try my best, Ms. Joubert."

Agnes gave Rowen an appraising look. "You'll make a proper Hero, I'm sure. Do try to smile more. Oh, one more thing – we'll be cooperating with the Justice Bureau regarding your identity and affiliation with them. I don't care what enemies you made of any criminals in Sternbild, but I suppose the more the merrier – and the more for ratings. We WILL however be keeping your identity as a Justice Bureau detective a secret. Judge Petrov will brief you on the specifics on that one, and you are to report to him periodically in the same fashion. Understood?"

Rowen could only nod.

"Now. Trish. I'm sure you know exactly what your role is."

"Yes, Agnes. I'll be the fresh new face of Apollon Media, trampling upon the dirt and scum of Sternbild, to take away as many sorry memories of that old fart Maverick and that snakey organization – what was it called again?"

"_Ouroboros._" Barnaby and Rowen said in unison.

"Right, Ouroboros." She swept a stray lock of hair over her shoulder, her bangles jingling. "I'll be sure to give Blue Rose a run for her money. Oh, and shoud a shoot or show get interrupted by a crime-"

"I'll see to it that it either gets rescheduled, or that both parties are duly compensated. You have my word, Ms. Nicholson." Lloyds smiled. It was a smile that Kotetsu knew very well.

"Good. Are we done here? I have a shoot in an hour."

Rowen left first, citing that she had a hearing to attend. A bemused Trish left after finalizing some terms with Lloyds about her compensation, and then only Kotetsu and Barnaby were left with Agnes in the office.

"I'm telling you. This will not end well." Kotetsu groaned. Even Barnaby wasn't so blind as to ignore the fact that Rowen and Trish were about as similar as a pumpkin and a rose.

"Oh, au contraire." Agnes had on her scheming face. "These two will certainly make ratings skyrocket. I can't wait to see the look on Blue Rose's face once Trish steps into the limelight."

Barnaby sighed. He had no idea if his retirement had been a good decision, but on the bright side, Maverick was out of the picture – so maybe things would turn out to be good after all.

The first episode of the Hero TV season had proved him wrong.

* * *

><p>End of Prologue<p>

* * *

><p>I took my time designing Rowen, but Trish.. is basically a recognizable character from another crimefighting female duo from Gainax. Go figure. I promise it gets better. Thanks for reading!<p> 


	2. Chapter 1

**Interim**

* * *

><p><strong>Story so far: <strong>After an inauspicious beginning, the new Apollon Media Hero duo of Rowen Chrysler and Trish Nicholson have a month to train under Kotetsu and Barnaby. Will a month be enough to iron out the kinks between these two girls?

* * *

><p>Chapter One: The first step binds one to the second.<p>

* * *

><p>For the most part, the hardest thing about the training for Rowen hadn't been the physical fitness exercises, situational training exercises and arrest protocol briefings. Those she had down pat; Yuri Petrov had seen to that during her first year in the Justice Bureau. Rowen would have rather faced an army of Mad Bear-piloted mechas than spend half an hour in the presence of her (begrudgingly accepted) partner, Trish Nicholson. Trish was cordial enough to her and managed to hold her own in the combat exercises, but did little more than dodge virtual bullets, leaving Rowen to do the actual work of beating the crap out of criminals. The exception was when they sparred. Whether it was by Trish's speed Next power or by sheer technique, the older woman could get Rowen flat on a mat in seconds.<p>

It didn't help that Barnaby, not Kotetsu, was the one overseeing this part of the training. Rowen had never particularly liked Barnaby even in their Hero Academy days (although she admitted he was handsome and had good fashion sense, but then again so did Kotetsu, and so did Trish.) and the way he seemed to smile smugly that _his_ Hero candidate was doing better in this particular series of exercises. Rowen stood up after maybe the fifth or sixth time of getting the wind knocked out of her.

"Bunny." she panted, a stitch in her side. That last throw had caught her flat on her stomach after being twisted around. "I'm pretty sure we've prove that Trish can outgrapple any criminal in Sternbild. Are we done here?"

Trish paused to examine her nails. "You're just sore because I'm winning."

"No, I'm sore because I've been getting my ass handed to me all morning." Rowen was looking clearly tired and had barely visible sweat stains on her blue and white sports shirt. Her black shorts clung to her legs. They had been working out all morning and the last thing she needed was Trish mouthing her.

"It's Barnaby, not Bunny." Bunny frowned. "Rowen, the point of the exercise is not only for the two of you to be familiar with each other's fighting styles for the sake of defending against them, but for the sake of teamwork. This is something I learned from Kotetsu the hard way, and I'd rather the two of you pick up on teamwork before the criminals get you into a tight situation."

"It'd help if I could lay a goddamn finger on her." Rowen sighed. Two weeks into the training and she was already wishing that some blimp or another would crash into the Apollon building just to give them something concrete to do.

"Well if you want to, less talk, more fight." Trish stretched. Today she was wearing a black tank top over a pair of white Yoga pants with a gold stripe running down them. She was barefoot. Rowen had noticed that Trish avoided wearing normal footwear as much as possible and only wore heels to meetings or other locations. She'd be in flip flops or barefoot the other time. "Ready yet, little detective?"

Rowen studied her. She'd tried attacking the arms to no avail, and kicking her hadn't worked as well as intended; Trish did some sort of leap that pulled her into a Judo hold while halfway down to the floor, and from pretty much any hold Trish could flip her over her back. She didn't want to think about what would happen if Trish activated her Next powers. _I'm pretty sure I could do her in if I tried, _she thought, thinking of all the criminals she'd put into the hospital herself, but those involved Rowen's own powers. _Think. Think about what Kotetsu said about fighting._

She made her move when Trish blinked. Rowen grabbed Trish's elbow and tried to wrench it to her back, but the shorter, leaner Hero leaned forward and reversed her way out of the hold. Rowen found herself being lifted up and above the model in another throw, but managed to shift her weight around and down in a half roll before crashing into the floor mat. Rowen twisted and shot a leg out at Trish's shins, catching her off guard for the first time, but the older Hero caught herself on one knee mid-fall. Trish shifted balance from her knee, dropping flat onto the mat sidewards and spun on the floor like a propeller, catching Rowen as she was trying to stand up. Trish's foot introduced itself to Rowen's stomach, and she toppled over backwards.

Trish stood up, taking deep breaths and throwing her white-blonde hair over her shoulder. "Not bad, but you're still too slow-"

Rowen lunged from a crouching position. Trish readied for a basic throw, but Rowen ducked under her arms in the other direction and swung one of hers out in a crude clothesline. It seemed to have worked, as both heroines crumpled to the mat, wrestling each other.

Barnaby groaned. Rowen had Kotetsu's stubborn tenacity with some of his own analytical fighting tactics, but Trish ran on pure reflexes. It didn't help that she was so confident, but she could definitely stand a chance in a fight. Rowen on the other hand didn't seem to be used to one-to-one combat, and given her Next power it was quite understandable. The point of a magnetic Next was to use the environment to their advantage, but the goal of a physically oriented one was the opposite.

"Enough, you two, you're supposed to be _sparring_, not wrestling." Barnaby pulled Rowen off her partner and gave both of them a stern look.

Trish spat a glib of blood out of her mouth. "Bitch, you made me bleed!"

"Well tough luck, fashion queen, people don't just lie on the floor in real fights." Rowen sneered back. "In a real situation, your enemy would have a knife or some other weapon. They don't train Ouroboros to wrestle or do Judo throws. What's the first thing those fancy shmancy martial arts teachers taught you in something like that, then?"

"Disarm them, duh!" Trish shot her a mean look as she got to her feet. "Aim for the wrist, the palm, the elbow, or incapacitate them as fast as possible."

"That'd work if they weren't wearing body armor, or if they weren't Next. If you aren't fast enough, that knife'll be in your throat before you can say _Go Next_."

"Stupid, nobody's going to be faster than me in a fight."

"True, but I'll bet that if someone like Rock Bison had you in a hold, no amount of speed is gonna get you out of it."

Trish opened her mouth to retaliate, but realized that the annoying detective was right. "Fine then, would you care to recommend to me any training regimes to give me a third eye or to swap my Accelerata for Hundred Power? I thought not. Now if you excuse me, I have an interview to attend."

"Trish-" Barnaby began, but in a hearbeat the girl was at the door to the training room, and after punching the door lock controls Trish disappeared in a white-yellow blur.

Rowen got to her feet, and offered Barnaby a hand. "...sorry, senpai. That chick is really pissing me off."

Barnaby wasn't one to reject common courtesy, and reached for it. "Kotetsu pissed me off the first few months of our partnership too, and look where we are now. Deal with it. I'm sure the two of you will reconcile eventually."

"Bunny, I'm a girl and so is she. Girls don't just _reconcile_. You be glad I'm not as big of a bitch that she is." Rowen pulled him up, casually extending an arm out. A metallic tumbler shot into her hand and she took a long draught of water from it.

"Way I see it, you're both being bitches. And it's _Barnaby_, not Bunny." Barnaby wrinkled his nose.

"So only my old man is allowed to call you _Bunny_?" Rowen grinned. She shook the tumbler a couple of times, and, realizing that there was nowhere near enough for a good gulp, poured the remaining contents over her head. Barnaby noticed that this was something Kotetsu would usually do, albeit without the magnetism.

"Yes. I mean, no. You're supposed to call people by their given names." Barnaby strode to the door where there was a small rack with towels neatly folded onto it. He threw Rowen's navy blue towel into her face. "How exactly did you end up with Kotetsu? He never brought up that he had another daughter, and the two of you don't even look alike."

Rowen and Kotetsu certainly shared little physical similarities, but the slightly sleepy expression of her bright eyes, the half grin, half grimace of a smile and the way she threw her back straight after hunching it for a second were all eerily familiar and reminded Barnaby strongly of his partner. "Well.. I think you'd have my parents to blame for that. Basically, papa was there for me when I needed a dad the most, and.. so was Tomoe." The distant look in her eyes at the mention of Kotetsu's wife was also something Barnaby would have attributed to his partner, and he realized that Rowen was more Kaburagi than he'd initially thought.

"You knew her?"

"Knew her? Yeah. I was already living with the Kaburagis when Tomoe got pregnant with Kaede." Rowen wiped herself dry with the towel and walked to the door of the training room. She gently pressed the button, and the door wooshed open.

Barnaby followed her outside. This was one subject he was still hesitant to bring up with Kotetsu, even though the older hero had exchanged tales of her with his own about the Brooks family. "What was she like?"

"Nothing like Trish, to be sure. Nobody can compare to my mom. She was an amazing person, and a fighter until the end."

Rowen smiled wistfully, squinting at the sudden light of the Apollon Media Hero training facility. Tomoe's husband was nowhere to be found, but Antonio Lopez was lifting weights in a corner, Keith Goodman was jogging on a treadmill and Ivan was kicking a training dummy. The former King of Heroes turned his head at the sound of Rowen's and Barnaby's footsteps, and tripped onto the treadmill, shooting out from the machine like he was flying backwards.

"Err. Sky High.." Barnaby began awkwardly.

"I'm all right! And again-" Keith propped himself up on his arms and got back onto his feet, but had the misfortune of placing one of them on the treadmill, serving to trip him up further. "...I'm alright, I think!"

"Explain to me how he got King of Heroes?" Rowen asked Barnaby, throwing her towel onto a railing to dry, and sat on one of the benches littering the facility.

"I wasn't among the competition." Barnaby smiled sneakily. "You sure you're all right, Sky High?"

Ivan had materialized by his side with a first aid kit. Keith looked fine except for a scrape on his elbow. "He'll live, Barnaby-san."

"Keep your eyes where you're going, Keith, one day you'll crash into a skyscraper." Antonio bellowed with a huff, depositing a hundred-kilogram weight onto the weight rack. "Rowen! It's been a while. How's training?"

"You know Antonio?" Barnaby was surprised, but he knew he shouldn't have been.

"He came over to visit papa and play with Kaede, so I got to see him a lot." Rowen grinned and turned to Rock Bison. "Uncle 'Tonio, my partner aside, training's been pretty good so far."

"Way I see it, cleaning up after your papa is better training than lifting metal here." Antonio gave her a hearty pat on the back, which nearly sent Rowen into the floor in a similar fashion to Sky High. "Boy you should have seen him and Barnaby the first couple of weeks! Kotetsu wouldn't shut up about how annoying the "rookie Bunny" was, and Barnaby-"

"That's enough, Antonio! Don't want to scare her off." Barnaby interrupted him. He'd prefer that Rowen not learn about his spats with Kotetsu. He was having problems as it was making sure the girls got along. Barnaby was fairly confident that Trish could pull of the charade, but he was pretty sure that like her "papa", Rowen would pretty much ignore the camera and act exactly like she wanted to.

"She'll get used to it. At least you're getting along with everyone else fine, Rowen. It took everybody but Nathan about a year to get used to Blue Rose."

"I'm not sure about her, I haven't met her even once yet. Pao lin is pretty cute. Nathan is.. I've met him before, I still feel uncomfortable around him, but he's a nice guy!" she smiled awkwardly. In the background, Sky High had gotten up and was gratefully patting Ivan on the head with the scratched arm.

Antonio shuddered. "Don't remind me." Barnaby knew the feeling.

"How long did it take you to get used to Bunny?"

"Oh, Bunny wasn't a handful at all for anyone but Kotetsu. If there's anyone we aren't quite used to yet, it's your old man."

"_It's Barnaby. _Not Bunny, damn it." Barnaby frowned. _Stop calling me that. _It was odd that he had no qualms about Kotetsu using the nickname, but he went lengths to make sure that nobody else followed his example.

"I wonder how long it'll take until I get used to Trish.." Rowen stretched as Ivan sat next to her with the first aid kit. "Hm? Yeah it hurts, but I'm fine, really.."

"No, you have to take good care of yourself. You're a Hero now." Ivan examined a bruise on her arm and found a salve to put on it. Since Rowen had started attending training, Ivan had been growing more outgoing, something both his superiors and Agnes had noticed recently. Barnaby had overheard her on the phone with the Helperides Finance execs and swore they were discussing his screen time outside of the actual action.

"When did _you _get so concerned about other people like that, Van? And last I checked, you were still the only Hero shy around women." Rowen looked down at him fondly.

"Last I checked, you weren't a woman." Ivan replied without missing a beat. Rowen smacked him with her towel.

The exchange surprised the other Heroes, and they decided to give the two some privacy. Antonio took Barnaby aside. "Let's be realistic here. How long are those two going to be at each others' necks?"

"No idea." Barnaby sighed and held his head in his hands. "They're like oil and water."

"So were you and Kotetsu." Antonio looked over his shoulder. "Rowen's a nice girl.."

"..and so Kotetsu tells me. She'll be valuable in the field, but they're not a team yet, not now." Barnaby shook his head. "And they won't be, for a while. God forbid they ever go into action the way things are now."

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of their communicator alarms.

* * *

><p>"Bonjour Heroes, I am pleased to inform you that the first episode of this season's Hero TV will be airing live, and unexpectedly early. Polls have suggested that our fans like a little side of the unexpected along with a generous helping of action, Heroism, and competition. So to kick off the season, we will be awarding a bonus of five hundred points extra to the Hero that bags this first arrest."<p>

_No. No. No no no no no. _Rowen was listening to Agnes' commentary on her new Hero communicator, which was black instead of white and had a blue outline. It had been part of her orders (from both Yuri Petrov and Agnes Joubert no less) that she and Trish had to debut simultaneously. Two weeks into training, the mere suggestion had been nauseous, but an actual situation made things more complicated, and Rowen just didn't want to think about what divine comedies could possibly happen on screen. _Rowen Chrysler, you are a trained professional. You've bagged at least as many criminals or more than most of these Heroes. All you have to do is not to embarrass yourself on national television. And find your goddamned partner._

Rowen turned a corner of the hallway, and ran into the tech division wing. The last thing she needed was to go into battle unprepared. She hoped that that person in charge of their hero suits (Kaito? Naito? Baito? She forgot.) had gotten at least the prototypes ready and waiting, with or without sponsor logos.

"The mark is currently just south of the Poseidon building and headed east. The criminal has just seized control of an armed truck loaded with at least 45 million stern in bank notes, and is running down civilians in his path. There have fortunately been no fatalities as of this moment, and the police have managed to reroute him to the highway along the outermost ring of the Silver Stage. You are addvised to be cautious of armor-piercing rounds and explosives. It is unknown if the criminal is a Next, and I expect proper protocol. To our newest heroes Rowen and Trish, and I do hope you're listening, I wish you good luck, and good hunting. Do Hero TV proud, Heroes!"

Rowen could hear affirmative shouts through the speaker, and guessed that they were of the other Heroes. She put in a half-hearted cheer as she stopped in front of a room that she vaguely remembered to be the armory, and realized that she hadn't heard Trish. _Heaven help me if she's taken the bracelet off for a shoot or something. _Rowen entered her personal code into the door lock, and it opened with a quiet hiss.

Saito was there, fiddling with what appeared to be a shoulder guard. He turned to face her and bowed politely. Rowen stood in awkward silence until she remembered what Kotetsu had told her about Saito's little speech impediment, and she went closer.

"...a little too early, if you ask me, the suit capabilities haven't been finalized, but they're bulletproof at minimum and should be enough for the task." Saito whispered, barely audible at half a foot away, but it was enough. "The specifics for both of your suits aren't done either, I haven't finished your weapons, and your partner has been by at least a dozen times complaining about how tacky the design is, as if she would know anything about designing mech suits."

"Saito. Thank you for the brief introduction, but..."

Rowen looked around. Standing next to Wild Tiger's and Barnaby's lime green and bright red battle suit were a not quite polished pair of suits, that seemed to be lacking in places where the mens' suits had either material or metal on. They had agreed that Rowen would be in blue and Trish in yellow, but the overall design of the suits was very impressive to her. Rowen's blue suit had a helmet that vaguely resembled Wild Tiger's, except with Barnaby's visor and electric blue eye sockets. The (wings? Fins?) at the sides made her look a little like a certain popular mobile suit. The shoulder pad Saito had been working on was hers, which was rounded not unlike Barnaby's but stuck out to the side a bit more like knight's pauldrons. Her torso was a little too puffed up for her taste and would probably make her look two sizes bigger than she actually was. Rowen noticed that her suit had minimal leg armor. Trish's suit was lithe and thinner than the other suits and had received Barnaby's (wings? Fins?) in treasure gold, but the rest of her helmet was white with black accents, and looked somewhat feline. Her armor seemed less bulky, and she had inherited Barnaby's propulsion rockets ("A girl needs a bit of help getting to high places, wouldn't you say?", Trish had insisted upon her first inspection.) and Kotetsu's gold eye sockets.

Saito shook the shoulder pad a last time, and deeming it satisfactory, ran over to slap it onto the armor to complete a suit. "There we go. Not perfect, but still quite the outstanding work."

"Saito, has my partner been here at all today?" Rowen took the helmet in her hands and ran a finger over it. A small mask dropped from inside the helmet, vaguely resembling Kotetsu's, but it was a different color. Rowen put it on experimentally, and it itched. She tossed it aside.

"No, I'm afraid not." Saito shook his head as he fiddled with buttons on his console.

"Thought so. Well Saito, while I'm here... could I possibly borrow a bike?"

* * *

><p>Rowen was already in her suit, sitting on the new Apollon Hero bikes. The overall visual design of the bikes hadn't changed aside from the blue and gold paint job, but now both had the ability to morph into sidecars. Kotetsu had gone over the schematic with her several days ago and wondered if Saito was planning to patent these. Rowen certainly thought they were efficient, but all the efficiency in the world wouldn't have made her partner move any faster. After what seemed like hours of checking with people and fiddling with the suits and bikes, she had finally tracked down Trish to the Fortress Tower building using the gps on their Hero communicators., the place where the Tiger and Bunny duo had "disarmed" a bomb during a scare. Upon finding Trish, Rowen had shoved her suit into her arms and simply told her to suit up.<p>

"No can do, little detective girl, I have another interview coming up in an hour, and I don't have the time to be playing dress up with you." Trish sneered.

"Forget the interview." Rowen sighed. She noticed that Trish wasn't wearing her communicator. "Hero TV goes live any moment now, and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to miss your own debut, would you? We've only been looking for you for the past hour."

"Oh, so that's what the noise with the bracelet was about. It was annoying me, so I shoved it into my bag." Trish smiled sweetly. "Did that little man redesign these like I told him to? I wanted it to show off more cleavage."

From Rowen's point of view, Trish barely even had any cleavage. "Just put on the damn suit so we can go after the criminal already."

"Last I checked, that was your job." Trish turned around and headed to the nearest restroom. "Wait outside so I can freshen up."

Half an hour later, Rowen was still waiting. It hadn't taken her five minutes to get into her own suit, and she was growing impatient while staring at the Fortress Tower building. It wasn't a place she was fond of, but it was no fault of the building. When Trish finally walked out into the noonday sun, looking like a golden white Barbie doll without her helmet, Rowen's patience had grown thin. "I don't think I'm likely to forgive you for wasting several minutes of my life."

"Oh shut it, Chrysler. Agnes'll make sure the show won't start without us. Does the suit make me look fat?" Trish twirled and struck a pose, jutting a hip out.

Rowen was pretty sure that any fat on Trish's body had disappeared a long time ago. "I don't think anything but a mountain of burgers could make you look fat."

"Hm. I'll have to take your word for it, I couldn't find a full length mirror anywhere."

Rowen groaned. This partnership would not end well. Trish dropped into her gold and white sidecar and got comfortable. "What are you waiting for? Let's go!"

"Thanks to your vanity, the criminal's probably halfway across Sternbild." Rowen revved up the bike and zoomed out onto the pavement. She pressed a couple of buttons on the console and on the side of her helmet, and a small virtual map of Sternbild appeared in her vision. Rowen waved away the sections of the Gold and Bronze stages and focused on the Silver stage. The criminal was marked with a blinking white cursor, while the other heroes were marked with their own cursors. She noticed Fire Emblem hot on the heels of the criminal, Origami darting from building to building just half a block away from his location, Rock Bison moving slowly towards the mark (he was probably still in his own trailer/launch platform), Dragon Kid still making her way from the Odysseus building, Sky High making a beeline for the criminal from his own building, and Blue Rose holding still about half a mile in the direction the criminal was going in. _That's Blue Rose all right, waiting for her grand entrance._

Screens had popped up on the passenger side as well, catching Trish's attention. "Detective girl, are you sure you're keeping your eyes on the road? I don't want my debut to be the end of me, you know."

"Well if you're in such a rush to get there in one piece, why not run there? I'm sure you'd get there in half the time I'd spend on the road in these." Rowen grunted, steering the bike down a highway ramp leading to the Silver stage. She'd have to cut through the central area around the Justice Building but at this rate Blue Rose would get some of the action first. No matter; what mattered today was who got the arrest.

"No point in exhausting myself before the cameras have seen me." Trish stretched. Where her undersuit clung to her skin, her sinewy muscles showed through, and Rowen doubted she would have exhausted herself running for the criminal, but the mark WAS halfway across Sternbild.

"Fine, but while you're sitting there, you tell me how you want us to debut. Shall I drop the criminal off the Silver Stage for you to make the arrest? Or will you run circles around him and drain the air out from where he's standing while I wrap a telephone pole around him?" Rowen said with heavy sarcasm.

Trish seemed to have glazed over the sarcasm "Hey, that sounds like a pretty good idea, Detective girl, but wouldn't the wind from my running mess my hair up? I'd hate that."

"You have a helmet, don't you?" Rowen cut through several side streets, bypassing heavy traffic at an intersection.

"Yes, but that would make a mess of it too." Trish paused to admire herself in Rowen's side mirror.

_Papa, if this was how it was with Barnaby, I don't envy you. _"There's a hair brush in the glove compartment."

"Mm~" Trish reached for the brush and found that it was one of those fancier ones favored by stylists. "Anti-static, to boot. Chrysler, I'm starting to think that this partnership might work out."

Rowen shook her head. "Don't get ahead of yourself just yet."

* * *

><p>Back at Apollon, Kotetsu had just stumbled into the Hero TV control room. Agnes, Barnaby and the rest of the crew were there, watching the chase on several screens. Barnaby's eyes in particular were glued to a screen showing Rowen and Trish on their bikes. The screen in the middle showed the Hero TV logo, and this particular screen was the main telecast. Agnes would choose which camera feed the main would switch to to get a better view of the action, not just for the crew but for the Sternbild audience as well.<p>

It had been past an hour since the criminal had taken off with the armed vehicle, and Agnes had done her best to stall for time. At this particular hour of the day, everyone was busy at work, at school, or in meetings, and that generally didn't make for good rating for a live show. Sure, that meant that more people would tune in to the primetime later that evening, but she wanted the season to go off with a bang with every soul in Sternbild glued to a screen, poised for the debut of the two new Heroes.

"Yo! Have I missed anything?" Kotetsu's eyes darted to the screen tracking the criminal, then to the one with Blue Rose on it. "Sure feels weird to just be watching for once." He took of his hat and fanned himself with it. Part of him was itching to run back into his suit and go after the damn guy.

"It's actually a bit of a refreshing change." Barnaby's mannerisms were the exact opposite of his statement. He was wringing his hands, fingering his wrist where _his _communicator was and looking like he was about to dart from the room any second now. "Agnes, he's headed right for Blue Rose, we're running out of time."

"I can see that, Barnaby. Now please let me do my job." Agnes plugged a Bluetooth headset into her hear and placed her hand on the broadcast button. "Mario, Cooper, stand by. We're live in a few."

Mario was the Hero TV announcer and had a room of his own somewhere else in the Apollon building. A light blinked open on the switchboard, signalling that he was ready. One of the helicopter cameras tracking Origami Cyclone swerved to show Cooper the field cameraman. He gave the control room a thumbs up, but as he swung the camera back around, Origami had disappeared. The disgruntled cameraman swore and the helicopter descended to find him.

"Mary. Network status."

"Connections with all the cameras are fine, Agnes. Our web site traffic with live streaming has raised to about 140%." Mary, a bright young girl in glasses and hair back in a ponytail, was the switchboard operator, and was also tasked with monitoring message boards and forums that were buzzing about anything related to Hero TV and its heroes. The Apollon Hero TV site had recently installed a streaming feature, and web traffic usually increased whenever there was even the slightest bit of criminal activity somewhere in Sternbild, as if the fans were expecting a broadcast. The more interesting the crime, the more interested the visitors were. "4chan is fine, the unofficial Hero boards are fine, Twitter activity is up, no remarkable change in Facebook."

Agnes nodded. _Of course there wouldn't be any change, it's 11 o'clock in the morning. Everybody in Sternbild is in the middle of something._ A loud bang startled her, and her attention went to the screen with the criminal's feed; he had just detoured through a construction site, rendering Blue Rose's lying-in-wait strategy useless. "Blue Rose, move. The criminal's decided to take a different route."

"_What? But there aren't any other routes!_" Blue Rose had been experimentally striking poses inside her trailer-come-portable-stage, and the news broke her composure. She banged on the side of her trailer for the driver to hear.

"He made one himself. I suggest you get moving before Sky High cuts you to the chase." Sky High had held the all-time Hero TV record for being first on the scene, mainly due to the fact that he could fly. "And I suggest you get moving NOW before I open the season with Fire Emblem roasting a construction site to bits."

"_Fire Emblem followed him?_" Blue Rose turned to the camera, looking exasperated.

"No, but I can make him."

"_Fine, fine. DONNY! You heard the woman, let's get going!_" Blue rose banged onto the side of her trailer again, and the engine roared to life.

Cain, the director, toggled through the viewpoints of a couple of cameras to check if the feed switching was working. "We're good to go, Agnes. On your signal."

"Agnes, your two newest stars are still fifteen minutes away in the other direction." Barnaby commented.

"And Rock Bison is right in the criminal's path." Agnes shook him off. "What have you taught those two about arrests, Kotetsu?"

"Arrests? I ran them through the last three seasons of Hero TV" Kotetsu replied, distracted. Rock Bison's horns had gotten stuck through the entrance of his trailer again, and his crew were trying to shove him free. "I don't think Rowen needs any of it, though, but she's usually on the business end of the arresting."

"And screen presence? Camera play?"

"Trish seems to have been born for it." Barnaby hadn't had problems at all with Trish in front of the camera, except that she kept hogging all the attention. No matter what he did with Rowen though, she still came off as flat and boring and businesslike, more like an announcer than a star. There were turkeys that acted better than her on camera.

"That'll have to do. Let's hope that helicam-in-the-sky is a flattering angle for both of them."

"Agnes." Rock Bison had unstuck himself from the trailer, and was ready for launch. Cain's hands were on the toggle buttons, but his eyes were on her. "Are we live?"

"Wait for it."

Agnes took one last look at the gps. The criminal was less than a minute away from Rock Bison's current position, and Blue Rose around five. Sky High was closing in fast, but Dragon Kid was stuck in a traffic jam. Fire Emblem had been forced to go around the long way and would be fourth to reach him. Rowen's and Trish's blips were still at least ten minutes away from the mark, but they were gaining _fast_ and didn't seem to be using the main roads.

She gave the two retired Heros a last smile before pressing the broadcast button. "We're live. NOW!"

* * *

><p>Kent Clarkson had been a struggling salaryman until his company had outsized him, and he was pretty sure he hadn't planned on stealing a runaway armed car with a life's fortune in Stern in it. Right now he was focusing on getting <em>out<em> of the city, on getting _away_ from those crazy heroes, especially that red one in the automobile that had nearly melted his rear bumper. He'd lost that one through the construction site, and the coast had been clear for a couple of minutes so far. Just to be sure, he'd left his phone on the dash connected to the Hero TV streaming service, and would've immediately received warning-

"**We're coming to you live, from the skies of Sternbild, HEEEERO TV!"** the announcer blared. So much for that last shred of hope. He wasn't just hearing it on his phone speakers either; he plowed through an intersection at the red light and saw his own getaway car on at least three electronic billboards around it.

"The criminal has seized an armored car from the bank of Sternbild and is currently running wild in the city trying to get away from our Heroes, but I'm sure he isn't ready for this!"

Kent's eyes went wide as a large green object crashed into the ground in front of the car. Rock Bison stretched his arms out to grab the armored vehicle and managed to latch onto it with his left arm. Fortunately for Kent the car he'd stolen was probably just as heavy as he was, and Rock Bison had to hold on for his life as the car sped past him, dragging him onto the ground. He held his ground however, and thrust his other arm into the car, carrying him with it.

"**And Rock Bison is the first on the scene, earning himself the first 25 points of the season but OH, the armored car snatches him away and is taking him with it! Bison has certainly caught up to the criminal, but how will he be able to stop it?"**

Kent heard the sound of crunching metal from Rock Bison's attack. He turned back for a second and found that the metal had held. He needed to shake the ox off his car fast, and he knew just the thing for it, and he gave the steering wheel a huge turn, nearly throwing the Hero off the car. The criminal sped for a tunnel leading west, but a red blur in front of him cut his escape short. Fire Emblem blocked the road with his car, and turned to face the criminal, poised to strike.

"**Oho! Fire Emblem arrives! He's just cut off the criminal's path, but Rock Bison is still latched onto the vehicle! Will the bourgeios Flame strike even with his companion on the line?"**

"Of course not. I like my meat fresh." Fire Emblem shot a flying kiss to the helicam and took his fire stance. "Bison, honey, get off of there or I'll toast you along with him!"

"I can't, I'm stuck!" Rock Bison seemed to be having difficulty getting his arm out of the car, and punching it didn't seem to help.

Kent heard the exchange and decided on a change of tactics. He swerved heavy to the right in a sudden huge u-turn. Rock Bison was thrown from the car and would have crushed Fire Emblem if the latter hadn't had the sense to get out of the way, and the red phoenix slammed the accelerator. Bison proved to be too huge a projectile to dodge entirely however, and he ended up clipping the tail end of the bright red racecar, along with the two rear wheels.

"**And Fire Emblem's car is brutally crushed, while the criminal is getting away! Poor Rock Bison, he must be hurting after that one!"**

"He sure got that right." Rock Bison groaned as he pushed himself up to a sitting position.

"Oh honey, if you wanted to drive home with me that badly, you should have said so earlier, not trash my ride." Fire Emblem gave him an angry smack on the shoulder, but immediately regretted it as his hand impacted the huge steel frame. "Ouch. I do hope you'll make that one up to me as well."

"Uggh." Bison decided to lie back down, further pulverizing the car as its owner shook his head.

Kent sped off in another direction, trying his best to avoid major routes. Another minute passed of no heroes and the announcer making commentary on his background (whoever it was at the Justice Bureau collecting information on everybody was sure doing a good job) until he came across a very bright trailer with blinking lights parked sideways in the middle of the road.

"**What's this? It's the Super Celebrity Hero herself! Blue Rose"**

A podium rose from the top of the trailer, carrying Blue Rose along with it. She posed for the camera sweetly, showing off her revealing costume and curves, making sure that the Pepsi Nex logo on her tiara was visible. "My ice may be just a little bit cold-"

Blue Rose shot beams of ice onto the road, weakening the traction of the armored car onto the ground. She proceeded to blow some vapor off one of her pistols, and winked for the camera. "But I've put your crime completely on h- UWAAH!"

Traction or no traction, the armored car drove smack into the trailer, sending it careening several yards backward and propelling Blue Rose and her pistols into the air.

"**Oh no! Blue Rose's trailer has been hit, and.."**

The ice idol cringed and closed her eyes, expecting the impact of the pavement, but instead felt two strong arms catch her from out of nowhere. She opened her eyes to see the retro helmet of Sky High, the colors of Sternbild a blur around them.

"You all right, Blue Rose? I've got you, and again, I've got you!" Sky High swooped low and deposited her onto the ground, standing her on both her feet, and gave her a quick salute.

"**..here's Sky High, with the first rescue of the season! For that he gets a hundred points!"**

_Quickly, while he's with the girl! _ Kent had been bruised badly in the collision and his nose was bleeding, but he didn't appear have any major injuries. He checked the car and found that the engine was still running. He shifted the car into reverse and drove away from the trailer, and the ubiquitous helicam followed after him.

"Sky High, get going-" Blue Rose began, tugging her skirt down; it had ridden up a bit during the impact.

"_Not yet, Sky High. Give him a bit of a head start._"

"What for, Ms. Agnes?" Sky High tapped the communicator button on his helmet.

"_It's the first episode of the season, you've got to give everybody some screen time. Dragon Kid's just out of traffic and is on her way, but Cooper still can't get a bead on Origami even _with _the gps tracker. Our new stars are closing in._"

"Really? Origami's nowhere to be found?" Sky High pressed another button, and the map appeared on the inside of his helmet. Origami's blip was neatly chasing after the vehicle, but he seemed to be doing so through buildngs and not through the roads. "He looks fine to me."

Blue Rose sighed. "For a Hero that does well on camera, you sure aren't aware of anything else, huh?" She marched towards her trailer to see if her ice bike hadn't been damaged in the crash as Sky High's jets smoked for liftoff.

"**The criminal has somehow escaped capture from both Blue Rose and Sky High! Where could he be headed next? The remaining Heroes are closing in on him fast-"**

_Shut up already! _Kent could feel his blood pressure rising as he spat out some blood. He must have bitten his cheek in the collision. He turned another corner and went under a pedestrian overpass when he heard a soft thump on the roof of the armored car.

"The Hero has arrived, de gozaru!" Origami Cyclone had dropped from the overpass and onto the vehicle, and unlike Rock Bison, he was leaning low and close to the roof. He had one hand in one of the dents the larger Hero hand made, and another in front of him forming a ninja hand sign. Somewhere in the sky, Cooper shouted a whoop of approval and signaled for the helicopter to fly lower.

"**Are you seeing this, folks? Origami Cyclone has just made a clean jump onto the vehicle from out of nowhere! What will the Hidden Hero do next?"**

Origami retrieved a wakizashi from his belt and attempted to stab the armored car with it, to no avail. The blade bounced off as if it was made of rubber. "Hm? A strong opponent!" Origami proceeded to comically whack the metal with the end of the sword handle before switching to the shuriken at his back.

Kent tried his best to throw Origami off the vehicle, but the Hero seemed to be stuck to the darn roof with glue. Whenever the car swerved right or left he'd lean low in the same direction to keep balance, and overhead obstacles didn't do much to faze him either. It was fortunate that the ninja Hero lacked the actual firepower to get past the already badly dented armor plating, but if Kent was keeping track of things he knew that Dragon Kid would be coming soon. Now SHE was a martial arts practitioner and Kent recalled that normal ones could chop cement blocks in half, so a Next like Dragon Kid might be able to peel the car open like an orange. He doubted it, but he was more worried about her electricity powers.

As if on cue, Dragon Kid flew in from the right as he was turning sharply around another intersection. She aimed a strong flying kick at the car which, combined with the unequal weight of Kurt in the driver's seat and Origami Cyclone vacating the roof, toppled the car on its side, skidding to the halt after a few meters and crashing into a couple of civilian cars. Dragon Kid somersaulted from the kick and landed gracefully on her feet, striking a pose with her bo staff. "HA!"

"Admirable work, Dragon Kid-dono!" Origami clapped, squatting on top of a traffic light. The civilians in their cars and on the street realized what sort of situation they were in and started running for safety. "Get to safety, people of Sternbild!" he shouted, making sweeping motions, and Dragon Kid thought he looked rather silly up there like an insect on a branch. She giggled.

Kent picked himself up from the wall (now the floor) of the vehicle. The bales of Stern had gone undone, and mounds of stray bills littered the inside of the car. Kent looked out the window to see the two younger Heroes approaching, and decided one last time that he would fight back. He hadn't stolen an armored car for nothing; the ones in Sternbild came armed with a turret gun at the very minimum, and he'd had the fortune of picking one with the gun mounted on a rolling platform on the inside.

"**Dragon Kid recieves fifty points for that excellent kick! But wait! The side door of the vehicle is opening up!"**

Kent shoved the turrent gun out with all his strength, and aimed it at the Heroes. Before Dragon Kid even had time to react, he opened fire. Origami Cyclone dropped down from his perch and sprinted to her, tackling Dragon Kid down and behind a car. The girl landed on her knees and rolled out into a sitting position, and there was blood on her arms.

A concerned Ivan broke character and turned off the audio feed microphone in his helmet, leaving the communicator. "Pao Lin! There's blood..!"

Dragon Kid winced. "I'm okay, Origami, it's just a graze." There were several very light scratches on her arms and knees from the fall, but along her arms there were at least three gashes, blood streaming from each. The sound of the turret gun continued. "This car isn't gonna last forever though.."

A loud bang and a cloud of smoke made her jump. Origami grabbed the side mirror of the car they were hiding behind and yanked the mirror off. He placed it against them and turned it around until he could see what had made the noise. "Not good. He's firing at the cars. One of them's leaking gas."

"Gas?" Dragon Kid had a worried look on her face. Neither of them stood a chance against an explosion, even Origami in his armor, and hiding behind another car would only buy them time, and even then maybe minutes. "Origami, what do we do?"

Above, the Hero TV copter had also flown to cover; Kent was firing at that as well. Sky High finally appeared over the top of a billboard showing the television feed, but Keith opened fire on him as well, and he darted away to hide behind a different building. The billboard exploded in shards of color as bullets shredded it to pieces.

"**The criminal has opened fire, and our Heroes are powerless to react! **Without** Rock Bison, they can't even get near the criminal, who is armed with a powerful automatic gun! If only Wild Tiger and Barnaby were here!"**

_You're not helping us with that commentary, Mario-san! _"Agnes!" Ivan shouted into his communicator. "We're in a tough situation here! Where's Rock Bison?"

"_You'll have to do without him, the doctors are saying he might have had a concussion._"

"_Concussion?_" Fire Emblem's dulcet tones interrupted the conversation. "_Agnes dear, Antonio's head.. well the one on his neck anyway is as hard as rock. Either way, he's not gonna be getting up or over there any time soon, and with my ride crushed to bits neither am I."_

Sky High was presently attempting to send a whirlwind or two at the criminal, but the armored car was simply too heavy, and the street too narrow to make a proper whirlwind without damaging anything in the environment. After a couple of stray wires and lumps of cement from the wind barely missed his head, Kent dragged the door over himand on top of the gun, giving him a roof.

"And Blue Rose?" Ivan asked.

"_No can do Ivan, my trailer's trashed and so is my bike._"

Ivan punched the side of the car. Bullets, an armored car and an explosion waiting to happen.. Another crash resounded across the intersection, and another car blew up in a plume of smoke and debris.

"Dammit. Think, think, think!" _What do I need? A tank would be nice, but dammit, I need time, I need power, I need help, I need Kotetsu, I need Barnaby, I need Bison, I need Keith, I need Edward, I need-_

"-we're here, we're here! Finally"

A blue and gold blur drove out into the middle of the smoking intersection. As it slowed down, the blur solidified into two armored figures on a bike and sidecar. "You're a horrible driver, you know that? Several times I nearly fell out of the sidecar-" A yellow one stumbled out of the sidecar and almost fell out onto the pavement.

"Would you shut your trap for once and get serious? We're in the middle of a chase here, and put your damn visor on." The other one, in blue, seemed to be chastising her.

The yellow batted at her. "But if it's on, the camera can't see my million dollar face. I suppose _you _wouldn't understand."

Kent squinted at the two shiny figures, barely visible through the smoke and dust. He thought for a second that they were maybe Wild Tiger and Barnaby, but the colors were different, and hadn't they retired..? Either way, they were out to get him. His hands tightened around the trigger.

"Is that the mark?" The yellow had her visor up, and she pointed lamely at the armored car on its side. The blue turned around to look at him, and seemed to hesitate for a second before slapping her partner's visor down and shoving her behind an overturned sedan. Bullets buffeted around them.

"Ow! What the fuck did you do that for?" Trish snarled. "I think I broke a nail. Dammit."

"How cliched are you? There's a guy out there in an armored car shooting at us and all you can think about are your stupid NAILS?" Rowen snapped back.

"_You two! Would you please stop the theatrics, it's your debut, for god's sake!" _Agnes shouted through the comm link. There were sounds of a struggle. "_..testing. Rowen, this is Barnaby._"

"THANK YOU. Bunny, what's the situation?" Rowen was sure she could hear Kotetsu in the background, trying to give advice.

"_Again, it's _Bunny. _Origami Cyclone and Dragon Kid are behind a car, and a Mazda around 10 feet away is leaking gas, and I believe I don't need to point out the fugitive in the armored car with the turret gun pointed at your location._" Gunfire spattered against the sedan like heavy rain.

"_Throw a car at him!_" Kotetsu was getting louder in the background.

"_I would suggest that if it weren't their debut. Rowen. Do something about that gunner, and Trish, get Origami and Dragon Kid out from behind that car."_

"Um Barnaby, just wanted to point out that _there's a fucking madman running a turret gun not too far from where we're standing!_" Trish breathed, clearly under stress.

"Just do as he told you, and do it pretty. That's what you're good at, right?" Rowen glared at her. It wasn't as effective with the helmet on, but it seemed to work.

"Yeah, and get rid of the jerk in the armored car. That's what _you're _good at, right?"

"Damn straight. Don't just sit and stare at me while doing it."

Rowen took a deep breath and walked out from behind cover.

"**We're here live on Hero TV folks, and the mysterious blue Hero has just come out from behind cover! Who is this Hero duo that look so much like last season's favorites, Wild Tiger and Barnaby Brooks Jr., and seem to have the same equipment as both? Are they Apollon Media's new Hero team?"**

Upon the mention of the words "Hero" and "team", Kent knew that he wasn't taking any chances. He opened fire on Rowen, the recoil from the turret making him draw a line upwards with the rounds. Rowen tensed, and a brilliant sapphire blue aura radiated from her body, which seemed to pulse rhythmically. The bullets stopped about half a foot from her in midair, looking like they were hanging from invisible threads. Kent stopped firing, dumbstruck.

"**What's this? The Hero has just repelled the criminal's gunfire! Is the a telekinetic Next? Does she have a force field?"**

"_Rowen, keep going._" Agnes seemed to have wrestled the communicator from Barnaby. _"It's just a little before lunch hour and our ratings are climbing fast._"

Rowen ignored her. "Trish, if you're going to move, now is the time."

Pausing for a moment to nurse her broken nail, Trish's body was enveloped in a blue haze. For an instant, Rowen swore she'd flipped up her visor and shot her the middle finger, but her partner was replaced by a gold and black blur at the next second.

Trish appeared next to the injured Dragon Kid and Origami Cyclone. Dragon Kid's eyes went wide at the sight of her. "Who're you? You're pretty."

"I'm Trish, the new Apollon Hero." Trish smiled at her and patted her head. She'd seen Pao Lin before, but only at a distance; the young Hero had taken some time off with her parents after the Maverick scare. She closed her visor. "You're hurt. Agnes," Trish said loudly, hoping she would hear; she hadn't bothered with learning how to use her equipment yet. "where do I bring this little sweetie?"

"_We've got an ambulance stationed two blocks away. You should see it on your map."_

"Got it. Come on, I'll get you all bandaged up. Origami, wait here." Trish scooped up the young girl in her arms and vanished in another blur of color.

"**And now her partner has brought Dragon Kid to safety, and she seems to be coming back for Origami Cyclone! She gets points for the rescue."**

Rowen started making her way closer to the criminal.

"D-don't come near me!" Kent shrieked.

"Surrender now! Please step out of the vehicle sir." A poor choice of words, considering that the criminal was basically stuck in his car with a gun in the way of his exit point, but training was training, and

Kent instead shot at her. Rowen waved the first wave of bullets into a neat line behind her and concentrated on the second. _Breathe, Rowen. The field takes care of objects, not forces. _Each bullet impact, while not actually connecting, took its toll on her psyche, and this automatic fire was testing her limits. The firing stopped for a second, and Kent scrambled down for another belt of ammunition.

His mistake. Rowen's eyes glowed like stars and she chopped into the air fiercely. The first wave of bullets flew back at the armored car, most of them bouncing off, some managing to stick into the dents that the other Heroes had made. None of them pierced the tough metal, which was fine for Rowen, and that wasn't how magnetism worked anyway. Instead, Rowen made a crushing motion with her hands. The second wave of bullets compacted into a ball the size of someone's head, and she made it revolve around her wrist. Rowen worked her arm like a propeller, increasing the amount of force in the metal ball. When Kent reached up to continue shooting at her, Rowen released the ball, which shot like a cannon straight towards the gun, and lodged itself in the firing mechanism. Kent shrieked and dived into the armored car, shutting the door.

The car leaking gas chose this moment to catch on fire from a few stray sparks flying from one of the other blown up vehicles. Flames trailed from the pool of gasoline on the road to the fuselage. Rowen caught another blob of color in the corner of her vision, and turning her head, saw it again, this time compounded with a larger blue one. _Van's safe. Good. Now to deal with this bomb._

The magnetic Next was pretty sure that she didn't want to be holding on to the car when it blew up. "Trish!" she shouted, lifting the car into the air with her powers. The car glowed blue, and Rowen could feel the heat even through the thick armor. Fuel was dripping heavily from the underside of the car, and having been in gas-related situations before she was glad for the air filters in her suit. Presently, her partner darted to her side, her visor on.

"What is the problem?" she asked, as if it weren't painfully obvious.

"This thing is going to blow any second. I want you to do something about it."

"Like what?"

Rowen would have decked her if she could. "You know how to run around in circles, right? Suck all the air from around it. That should extinguish the fire." It was a similar principle to vacuums and fire extinguishers in that you simply got rid of the oxygen fueling the flame.

"I recall that I was supposed to handle the rescuing. Nobody needs rescuing right now." Trish crossed her arms. "And I mean even if it does blow, we have armor, right?"

_Bitch! _"If that thing explodes, we'll have to answer for it. Damage fines. You want points, right? And in case you've forgotten, the cameras are rolling!"

The golden hero took a thoughtful look at the car midair. "Clockwise or counterclockwise?"

_There we go. _"I don't know, you're the one with the speed powers!"

Trish shrugged and took a crouching position, like a runner at a starting line. She closed her eyes from within her helmet. _Circle. I need to draw a circle. _A completely different sort of circle appeared in her mind, a red one, searing hot, nearing her thigh.. _No, not now! _Trish renched her eyes closed. She didn't want to remember. That's why she had escaped.

"Trish..! _Any second now would be nice!_"

Trish opened her eyes, startled. _I'm not one of them any more. I'm a Hero now, no matter what that little detective says._

Rowen had been staring daggers at her partner before she vanished from the spot. She blinked and looked for a blur, but there wasn't one. A strong wind buffeted at her from the direction of the burning vehicle, and in seconds a small cyclone enveloped it. Little bits of debris and broken metal swept up the column of air, and as the torrential wind howled, Rowen faintly saw a blue glow from within it. The red haze from the flaming car soom dulled to barely even a spark, and puffed out of existence. Rowen lowered the car to the ground, stray drops of petrol spattering away in the dying cyclone.

Trish materialized next to her, looking very uncomfortable. Rowen guessed that she must have been exhausted. She would definitely get an earful later.

"Sparklypants." Rowen was breathing heavily as well. That car had been heavy. "I presume you want the arrest?"

Trish looked at her thoughtfully. "That's nice of you, but are you quite all right? You seem to be getting tired. That's what comes out of relying on your Next power too much-"

"Better than not using it often enough. Now catch him before he lands on his ass."

Rowen let out a shout, and threw out her right arm. The armored car glowed the same sapphire blue as her own, and after a couple of seconds started floating several feet into the air. The Next let out a huff and shook the car a bit before flipping the car around.

"Easier done than-" and Kent Clarkson fell out of the loosened hatch along with what looked like several million Stern in bills, a ball of crushed bullets and a beat up mobile phone. Kent was a foot off the ground before he got caught up in Trish's golden blur and then suddenly he was there at both of their feet. "-said. Now Mr. Bad Guy, if you don't want to get hurt, then you'd better come with up peacefully, okay?" Trish pulled up her visor and winked at him.

"**And the golden girl grabs the arrest! She gets two hundred points, plus the five hundred bonus for the first arrest of the season! Her partner is awarded fift points for the assist, and they are awarded a joint hundred points for stopping the explosion!"**

"I- I didn't mean to steal, I mean- I have a family-" Kent stuttered.

"Laws are laws, and you broke them, and a whole lot at that. And you might have to pay a couple million Stern in damage fines-" Rowen was no stranger to these, having had to manage Kotetsu's time and again "-and that's the easy part. I'd hate to see what they'd do to a green guy like you in prison. Sorry mister, but you're under arrest." Rowen shook her head at him, noticing that the bullet ball rolling to her ffeets, and she bent it nto a pair of manacles, snapping them onto him.

"_The camera, Rowen, the camera!_" Agnes hissed into the communicator.

And then Rowen saw the Hero TV copter with Cooper at the helm of the camera and he waved. Rowen waved back weakly, and only then did she realize that she had been on national television showing off her Next powers. Trish was beside herself with glee.

"Two rescues _and _an arrest _plus_ a point bonus! I must be on the top of the rankings right now!" She waved at Cooper, posing for the camera. Kent looked glumly at the ground. Rowen consciously flopped her visor up and tried to smile.

"**What a stunning performance by these two new Heroes! Who are these lovely young ladies? Find out later in out primetime slot, where we interview these two ravishing heroes! Tune in next time for more exciting Hero TV crimefighting action, and don't miss the season premiere event on live telecast from the Sternbild dome! This is Mario, your announcer, over and out!"**

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><p>Yuri Petrov sat in front of his MacBook and raised a glass of wine to the video stream. Not that he needed it – his laptop was wired to the thousands of security cameras pointing to the streets of Sternbild and god knows where else – but it always helped to have an eye open to what the public was seeing. Rowen had performed as expected, following protocol and showing off to the camera. She lacked Lunatic's theatricality, but obviously this was something that would have come up as odd if he'd mention it to her. <em>Perhaps in passing.<em> He made a mental note to congratulate his detective on her debut, and to tell her to _smile. _Rowen's awkward grimace at the camera wasn't the least bit charming.

When Kotetsu and Agnes had approached him with the proposition of turning his pet detective into a Hero superstar, he had initially been extremely reluctant. It was only when Agnes presented the profile of Rowen's partner to be that he'd rethought things. He'd run a quick search in the Justice Bureau database concerning Trish Nicholson, whose data he'd found chronologically sketchy just before the start of her fashion model career, and thought the search turned up no notable documents, the image search had proved fruitful. Granted, these weren't the most accurate of searches he conducted, but the fact that Trish's face seemed to match several of those caught on security cameras, and on _Ouroboros_ operations at that. One in particular, the strongest match, was on a feed that had come from a shopping mall that had been the subject of a major hostage taking a little over a decade ago. The mall was gone, destroyed in a bomb explosion stemming from the same operation, and a high-rise building stood in its place. His detective had been there just this morning. Yuri didn't want to jump to conclusions – for all he knew, the girl might simply have gone shopping that day – but he found it highly intriguing.

Even at the Justice Bureau, with his own "private" work and those of his investigators, there was little knowledge on Ouroboros. This is why he'd hired Rowen in the first place; Rowen seemed to have a strong enmity for the organization, a personal attribute he normally would have disqualified people for, but the investigation had taken leaps and bounds in her first probationary year on the job. Yuri made sure to keep her close after that. Trish was an unlikely connection to Ouroboros, but then again there were no particular qualities of what would have counted as a likely connection that had come to mind, and so he'd let her go off on her little Hero charade, calculating that Rowen's nosiness would get him the information he needed.

It also helped that Rowen would make the best informer, being in the middle of the Hero TV affairs, to sniff out any of Maverick's remaining lackeys and to put the final nail in his coffin. She didn't know that, of course. All she knew was that she was still on the detective payroll.

He began composing a message to her, to be sent through the Justice Bureau secure channels. It would be one of congratulations, and a reminder to send him her weekly briefings and a case report of every capture, and to be careful not to reveal her occupational identity to the public; they generally didn't like the idea of the government interfering with different sectors, and he supposed that the media was no exception. Yuri wouldn't let her forget that she was a Hero in name only, and her function was solely to be his eyes and ears in Hero TV – but of course he wouldn't tell her, he'd simply make sure that she remembered that he was still her boss, and that he expected great things from her. Rowen was eager to please.

_Theatricality._ He mused, in the middle of a sentence remarking how interesting the proceedings had been. _Who better to learn from than Thanatos himself? _Yuri decided to keep the channels open, and to choose a careful time and place for this season's first Lunatic appearance.

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><p>End of Chapter One<p> 


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